Dems: Tie export agency to jobs bill

Senate Democrats are demanding that lawmakers renew a federal agency that aids U.S. exports as part of a larger bill making its way through Congress that would loosen regulations for small businesses.

The senators said Wednesday that they’ll push for reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank as the upper chamber considers the House-passed JOBS Act, which congressional Republicans have repeatedly called to be taken up in the Senate without any changes.

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“It would make a good bill even better,” Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said. “We are going to press hard for it … it is a jobs measure, plain and simple.”

The Export-Import Bank is an agency that provides loans and other forms of insurance that are intended to help finance the sale of U.S. products overseas. Fred Hochberg, the bank’s chairman, said in the last fiscal year, the agency created or supported more than 200,000 jobs.

Its mandate expires May 31, and Senate Democrats say that attaching it to the House-passed JOBS Act is the quickest way of reauthorizing the agency. The JOBS Act is the next item that will hit the Senate floor after the upper chamber cleared a two-year transportation bill on Wednesday and Senate leaders struck a deal on judicial nominations that could have clogged the chamber’s schedule.

“The Export-Import Bank is one of the most important tools America has to create jobs,” said Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), who will sponsor an amendment that would reauthorize the agency for four more years.

Republicans in both the House and Senate have repeatedly called on Senate leaders to simply take up the JOBS – or Jumpstart Our Business Startups – Act, which includes a slew of measures meant to ease securities regulations for small businesses and other entrepreneurs.

The 390-23 vote in the House last week was a noteworthy coup for a divided Congress in an election year, and the White House has said President Barack Obama supports these measures.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s office said Wednesday that lawmakers there are crafting a bipartisan solution that includes reforms to the Export-Import Bank that they want to consider by the end of this month.

Schumer argued that instead of simply taking up the House-passed bill, they were improving the legislation by attaching the Export-Import Bank reauthorization to it. He noted that some Republicans have opposed the reauthorization of the agency, while others backed it.

“This is another example of Republicans being divided on a job-boosting proposal,” said Schumer, the Senate Democrats’ messaging chief.

However, Schumer said Democrats did not have the 60 votes needed to approve the amendment. A handful of Republican senators — such as Rob Portman of Ohio, a former U.S. trade representative, and Mike Johanns of Nebraska — do support reauthorizing the bank, but it’s unclear if Democrats will garner enough GOP support to break the 60-vote barrier.